Olympic gold medallists Miu Goto, Hitomi Kawabata lead the way as Japan Women's National Softball Team opens training camp in Okinawa
Aiming to win the WBSC Women's Softball World Cup 2024 as well as a seventh consecutive gold medal at the Asian Games Aichi/Nagoya 2026 and the third consecutive Olympic gold medal at Los Angeles 2028, world No. 2 Japan opened a training camp in Okinawa.
A total of 25 players have been selected for the training camp, including two Olympic gold medallists at Tokyo 2020: Miu Goto and Hitomi Kawabata. There are also three players who were named to the National Team for the first time: Aine Kano, Mayu Okawa and Yamamoto Hoshi.
Pitchers
- Misaki Katsumata
- Miu Goto
- Mio Sakamoto
- Ayane Shikano
- Hanna Sone
- Hinako Nakayama
- Sakura Miwa
- Chise Yamashita
Catchers
- Yume Kiriishi
- Haruka Sumitani
Infielders
- Kyoko Ishikawa
- Mayu Okawa
- Hitomi Kawabata
- Kanna Kudo
- Yui Sakamoto
- Eri Shimoyama
- Shiho Suto
- Yui Nakamizo
- Akari Yamamoto
Outfielders
- Nana Iha
- Ayana Karoji
- Risa Kawamura
- Tsukamoto Hotaru
- Ayane Nakagawa
- Urara Fujimoto
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games gold-medal winning head coach Reika Utsugi returns at the helm of the team, joined by three gold medallists in her staff: Eri Yamada (Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020), Mana Atsumi (Tokyo 2020) and Yukiyo Mine (Tokyo 2020).
Japan will open their season in July hosting world No. 1 USA in a three-game series. The All-Star Series will be played in Nagoya, Fujinomiya and Yokohama from 4 to 8 July.
A week later, Japan will travel to Castions di Strada, Italy, to compete in the WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Finals. The event will be played from 15 to 21 July and will crown the Women's Softball World Champion.
Japan will open the Finals in Group B, playing against No. 3 Puerto Rico, No. 8 Netherlands and No. 10 Australia. Japan will seek to win their fourth world championship, and the first since 2014, when they won their second consecutive World Championship.